Grand Straits Garden Restaurant / Restoran

My boss has suggested going to JB for seafood one Fri evening and if there is any one restaurant which I would take the department to, it would be Grand Straits View Garden Restaurant located about the Danga Bay area. The restaurant which has huge (and I mean, really huge) convention halls for co events/weddings, as well as ample parking with security, boasts a really comprehensive menu with one of the widest selection of seafood I've come across in JB such as French Turbot Fish and the Alaska King Crab. Take note though that not ALL the seafood listed in the menu is available all the time. Hence, one would do well to make reservations/call beforehand if one is minded to try the more unusual items on the menu.

The restaurant has outdoor and indoor sitting area. During dinner about 7pm, there is some sort of a live band performing outdoors while those who prefer the airconditioned comfort can enjoy the Singaporean channels playing on the LCD TVs indoors. The live seafood is kept in these tanks and one can pick out one's meal from the tank.

I brought a seafood-loving friend to the restaurant one of the weeknights when petrol was low and we decided to each take out RM100 to indulge. We chose the largest crab with the largest claws in the tanks which was priced at RM 9 per kg. They did not weigh the crab in front of us which on hindsight, we should have asked them to. It was rather hard for me to believe that the crab below weighed more than 1kg (they charged us RM 108 for the critter below)!

The pic below is of the hapless critter chopped and cooked in black pepper sauce. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The problem with doing reviews more than 1 month after eating is that the memory if blurred somewhat...I don't remember having any complaints at all with this dish. The crab was fresh (at SGD 40 it should be!) and the black pepper sauce satisfactory. However, we thought that for JB standards, this dish was...expensive!

Mouth-watering kangkong! I love kang kong and have ordered this dish at almost every Chinese restaurant I go to . And if anything, the kangkong at Grand Straits View Garden Restaurant scores 10/10 in The Slog Reviews. The veg is cooked to the right degree so that it isn't a soggy mash and has the right degree of crunchiness (stems) and wetness (the leaves). Even the belachan chilli is fresh and unqiue in the sense that it isn't a paste smeared (as with some other kang kong stores) but actually pretty crunchy too. Strongly recommended.

My food companion has, as a result of us ordering the herbal prawns (see pic below), developed a woman-like craving (haha) for herbal prawns ever since. He also finished most of the herbal soup which he claims is..."very good". The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Order at least the Medium-sized dish! It seems considerably larger than the Small version and the prawns are fresh and cooked to the right degree of firm sweetness. We did not see any live prawns in the tank so either these weren't live or they were kept in a tank elsewhere.

The last dish we put away was the large white clams priced at RM4 per 100gm with a min order of RM 300gm. One of the cheapest dishes on the menu. Fresh and good but the chilli isn't spicy though.

The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. This is probably one of the more/most expensive seafood restaurants in JB but the price may be said to be justifiable given the quality of the food, the service standards, the ambiance and security of the restaurant. Not a place to go if one wants cheap good seafood, but a place to be if the aforementioned are of concern/importance and if one wants a wider (and more unique) range of seafood to choose from.